Mathematics at Solway

A Snapshot of Mathematics at Solway:

Problem Solving, Prompts and Provocations

Throughout the year our teaching staff have participated in several Professional Learning sessions organised by the Riversdale Network. We have looked at the big ideas in Number that have a significant impact on student development and examined strategies to increase students’ cognitive engagement through opportunities to problem solve, reason, justify and express their understanding.

Here's a problem that may engage and resonate with this some of this audience:

‘If Bon Jovi are now 3/4 of the way there, when will they get there?’

What do you need to know or find out to solve this problem? What mathematical understanding, skills and strategies did you use when problem solving? How could you show/illustrate your response?

The following concept cartoon prompt was used to engage students in classes from Prep – Year 3, in considering their understanding of the properties of triangles:

An advantage of using a prompt such as this is that students can grapple with concepts focussing on the ideas presented without the pressure of having their own ideas in the spotlight. The ideas are being scrutinised, not the students. This help to build a culture where students can challenge ideas together, in a respectful and supportive manner.

Conducting this lesson with a range of students from Prep – Year 3, I was able to observe that all students were able to engage with the learning, all students experienced some level of challenge in considering and/or justifying their understanding and it led to the uncovering of misconceptions and students questioning what they knew to contribute to forming generalisations that could be transferred to understanding types of two-dimensional shapes.

Some student quotes from the lessons included:

“Number 5 is the original triangle; it is the most famous”.

“Number 6 is only half a triangle”

“I think number 1 is a triangle because it has a point at the top”

“Did the photocopier not work for number 3?”

“Number 4 looks like it was a triangle, then someone stood in it and pushed the sides out”

In summary, it was the students who were able to share their reasoning and ‘nut out’ the rules for the property of what constitutes whether a shape was a triangle or not a triangle. They uncovered the learning with the support of teachers addressing misconceptions and confirming accurate justifications.

Students were then given the opportunity to identify the shapes they now knew to be actual triangles. They were also given the opportunity to make examples of triangle and non-triangles using geo-stix, a very popular new learning tool we have in the school. It was wonderful to see how quickly many students challenged whether we could make ‘actual’ triangles with the geo-stix, as the line on the outside of the shape was curved at the points. This led very quickly to these students sharing with their classmates that, when using geo-stix we have to look at the line on the inside of the sticks, with the ‘sharp’ points.

If any readers did take a moment to consider when 80s rockers Bon Jovi will reach their destinations and would like to share their conclusions, please feel welcome to email me; robyn.davis@education.vic.gov.au

Robyn Davis

Numeracy Leader

Maths Explorers

 A group of Year 3 and 4 students took part in ‘Maths Explorers’ this year for this first time in preparation for Maths Olympiad in the upper years of the school. Students worked as part of a team during each competition to solve challenging problems. At Assembly two weeks ago, Mr Skea presented the top 6 students with a special badge song with a certificate which all participants received. The students were:

Allan Skea

Maths Olympiad Co ordinator